THE BEST SUMMER

USA | 2026 | COLOR | DCP | 90’ | ENGLISH

From a forgotten drawer straight onto the big screen, Tamra Davis’s digital diaries constitute a rare piece of rock mythology. With a Hi8 camera in hand, the director follows the Beastie Boys (the band of her then-husband, Mike D), documenting the legendary ‘Summersault’ tour across Australia and South-East Asia in late 1995. With the help of Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill in the role of an audacious backstage reporter, she captures a raw chronicle within a musical time capsule. In front of her lens, Sonic Youth and Kim Gordon, a fledgling Dave Grohl with the Foo Fighters, Beck, Pavement, Rancid and Kim Deal with the Amps shed their media personas and recount the heyday of an entire generation in an exceptionally valuable found-footage documentary that exudes a sense of absolute freedom.

DIRECTOR: Tamra Davis
DoP: Tamra Davis
EDITOR: Jessica Hernandez

TAMRA DAVIS
American film, television, and music video director, born in 1962. She grew up in California surrounded by entertainment; her grandfather was a comedy writer and her grandmother was an actress. She worked as an apprentice at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studio during the production of “One from the Heart”, which inspired her to study filmmaking at Los Angeles City College. She has directed over 100 music videos for iconic artists including Sonic Youth, The Smiths, Bette Midler, among others.

FILMOGRAPHY (SHARED)
2026 The Best Summer
2013 The Punk Singer
2010 Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
2002 Crossroads
1998 Half Baked
1995 Billy Madison
1993 CB4
1992 Guncrazy